


Cause and Effect

by AmaryllisComplex



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post Order 66
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-12
Updated: 2013-02-12
Packaged: 2017-11-29 01:43:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/681263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmaryllisComplex/pseuds/AmaryllisComplex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Yet it would be your duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it: it is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear.” -- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre</p>
<p>Rex/Ahsoka; Post Order 66.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cause and Effect

The expansive desert of Tatooine was unforgiving. Combined with the glare of the twin suns that beat down upon her mercilessly, Ahsoka wanted nothing more than to leave. But she was hardpressed for other options, a need to know driving her to keep the landspeeder going over the dunes of warm sand.

Earlier on in what now seemed like another life time — or to another person completely —, she had walked the expanse of desert, the suns warming her skin as she followed the man who had, at that point, been her newly appointed Master. 

It was a bittersweet emotion that attached itself to the memory, a harsh refusal to allow what her Master had become — the monster who had destroyed everything she had known, had twisted the man that she had loved — to twist and perverse the memories of better times that she had with him.

Regardless of what she allowed and refused, a hand came up to scrub at her eyes, though she told herself it was to give her eyes some reprieve from the sand and not that she was crying. It was still a tender subject, and a part of her suspected that it would always be, and that she would never be able to talk about it properly to anyone, least of all him.

If the memory of her Master did not have her wanting to cry, the thought of him — of the man who was so strong, stronger than she could ever hope to be — had her throat restricting and an uncomfortable, hollow ache resounding in her chest. It had been far too long since she had last seen him, a parting that had left her wanting to change her mind and ask him to come with her.

But she had not, and she had watched as he placed his helmet back on and rejoined his brothers, leaving her to depart before anyone else could find her. It had been an unspoken agreement that he would remain behind, to give insight into inner workings of what had happened while she would run, search for survivors and gather intel from the outside. 

That had been nearly six months ago, and she missed him just as much — if not more — than she had when they parted. In the wake of her life being uprooted from beneath her feet, he had been there for her, protecting her — in more ways than one. She knew that it had to have been difficult to fire upon his own brothers, only to turn around and rejoin their ranks.

Shaking her head, Ahsoka's eyes narrowed as she returned her thoughts to the present. She would not allow herself to dwell any longer — if what she had heard was true, they would be that much closer to bringing down what was a swiftly forming Empire.

The tip of a house — small, modest in nature and definitely fitting of the one she hoped to be living there — came into view just above the crest of a dune before her, and anticipation had her muscles tensing, preparing for what she would find as she approached. 

She cut the engine of the landspeeder before she had properly approached the house, her head turning and bright blue eyes scanning the expanse of barren track before her. Her hearing, superior to most from her instincts as one belonging to a predatory race, gave her nothing. No scratch of a desert creature, no presence of another life-form. Nothing.

Her heart plummetted, and she swallowed hard and pressed her arm to her eyes to stem the burning prelude to tears. Tears of frustration, of blindly following a lead that had ended like all the rest — with nothing to show for it, leaving her empty handed and acutely aware of just how alone she was. 

In earlier months, she had kept a blind faith, a naive hope — a hope that perhaps Rex had not been the only one to disobey the order, that there had been more that had escaped. But right now, she was terribly alone.

And it hurt. Hurt far worse than anything else, an ache that reached a depth that not even a vibroknife could touch. But it felt like one, twisting and mangling what little, desperate hope she had left. 

"Ahsoka?" 

The call of her name was unfamiliar to her, not for the tone, but for the fact that no one had called her name in quite some time. She had given false names as she moved through the galaxy, along with false smiles and alterations to the white markings on her face that she had once displayed so proudly. Her head snapped up, locking with blue. For a moment, irrationally, she thought it to be her Master — but his eyes were darker, and he was lost to her.

"Master Kenobi!" The cry wrenched from her mouth as she moved quickly, wrapping her arms around his waist in a tight, fierce hug that he returned after a moment. Relief flooded her system, rekindling the hope that others had made it out — if Master Kenobi was still alive, there had to be more. 

She was ushered inside, taking a seat at the table across from him. Words spilled from her mouth, explaining how she had escaped and what she had been doing since then. There was the occasional twitch of Obi-Wan's mouth, a glimmer of amusement at the usual nature of the young Togruta across from him. When she finished, she was shaking, unshed tears glistening as she looked at him, asking for an answer to a question that she had not asked — a question that he could not answer.

"What will you do now?" she inquired, wiping the tears away. She was curious to know what Obi-Wan planned to do. He shifted and sighed, glancing away before returning his gaze to her. The color, though similiar to her former Master's, were a lighter shade and more open and honest than her Master's had ever been. 

There had been a part of Anakin, Ahsoka noted, that she had never reached, a barrier that should not have been there between Master and Padawan, but had been and so kept her from understanding who her Master was. His past on Tatooine was locked beyond that barrier, and, she supposed, she would never know what had sparked his intense hatred for the planet.

"I'm going to wait," Obi-Wan's response brought her back to the present, and she blinked. "Until the time is right to strike." He watched her, eyes bright and wary. "And what will you do?"

A part of her wanted to say that she would wait, just as he was, but another, stronger part of her said that she could not do that — not now, not when Rex was counting on her — and so she cleared her throat and stood. "I'm sorry," she spoke, "but I can't do as you do, Master."

Obi-Wan sighed, shaking his head as he stood as well, walking her to the door. "May the Force be with you, young one." Ahsoka smiled, returned the sentiment with a nod of her head, and turned to approach her landspeeder. Leaning in the doorway, Obi-Wan exhaled, watching as his former Padawan's Padawan disappeared. "I only hope that you know what you're doing..."


End file.
